Just a little bit of really great, helpful information that everyone should know to help keep our animal friends as healthy and happy as possible. 🙂

Two Topics:

–Food animal labeling of products, ensuring well being.

–Some tips for cat and dog Moms and Dads. 🙂

Animal Food Product Labeling…The New Standard:

At Maintenance Motions, compassion is all-encompassing.

Focusing on rebuilding and maintaining our health, carries over into mental and spiritual health, which carries over into love for ourselves, our fellow human beings, and our companion and food animals, and the planet’s ecology that sustains us.

Members of MM have dogs and cats as pets, and we support the Animal Welfare Approved (link below) organization for its efforts to help ensure that farm animals, the animals that meat eaters depend upon as a source of nutrition, are treated with the highest standards, respected and appreciated for the gifts they provide for us.

Factory farming is clearly out of balance with what is respectful treatment of these wonderful beings that share our planet and perhaps…have birthright to it over ourselves.

Please look for this label as it becomes more widespread on food labels when buying your eggs, poultry or other sources of meat:

Most of the focus here is on cats, solely because I babysit them far more than dogs based on family and friends havng them in a much higher percentage than dogs. Just works out that way, but I of course love them both, and try to educate myself in doggie areas as well as I’m able.

The latest research is showing definitely…and finally…that soft food for kitties is the heathiest route to take to help ensure your kitty has the best chance of thriving and being happy for a long life.

If we think about it, any wild cat in nature is not going to have the “crunchies,” the hard, cereal-like cat food to choose from as a food source, and will instead thrive upon meat sources such as mice. And relatively few mice, perhaps only one to two a day when living on their own.

The mouse serves as the high protein source needed for their diet, as well as a high moisture source, essential as well to hydration and urinary tract health, which has been a sky rocketing concern of late for countless cat owners, when it need not be.

Research is now proving that the hard cat food is what is causing all of these problems.

Over the next few years, we will see a migration away from the cheap hard cat foods as this problems is more recognized and food manufacturers in turn comply with the demands of the consumers who will be purchasing less and less of these hard cat foods for their kitties.

For us, we look for specific items in the moist food varieties:

High meat content.

No meat by-products.

High moisture content (which tends to be the norm with soft cat food)

No grains (also becoming more and more common, since grains are unnecessary fillers)

And watch for the soy, an endocrine disruptor just the same as in humans (especially in the form it’s in as food filler)

There are several brands out there that cater to this kind of formula, such as the Evo brand and Wellness brands found below:

After all, how often is a wild cat going to be seeking out a grain to eat in nature, right?

Clean Water is Vital

Make sure your kitty has plenty of water sources to choose from. We like to use both fountains with carbon filters (some kitties love them) or just bowls of water, at least a few places around the house for easy access. The water should be changed out at least once a day (we change it twice), and spring water is the ideal option.

Antibiotics

The same as humans, antibiotics are far over-prescribed. I’m not saying they don’t have use, I’m simply saying they should be utilized as minimally as possible because of the same intestinal mess they will cause our companion animals, the same as they do us.

If they must be used, or as a prevention measure, there are some great probiotics that can be added to a kitty’s soft food that work really well and are not difficult for your little one to eat; they don’t taste absolutely terrible, and do mix in well with soft-wet food. I use far less than the label suggests to help it mix well, but at least he/she is getting some in regularly to help support the immune system so that UTI’s, etc will not happen to begin with which are becoming more and more common, especially with male kitties (water and soft food will tend to avert this on their own; new studies are showing the dry food, once again, is the culprit here).

Most of my “baby sitting” as referenced above is for family member’s pets whom are currently 90% cats. So I have had to contend with occasional circumstances where I need to research a particular problem, especially if Mom and Dad are away for an extended vacation.

The above are the basics that I found to be very helpful for my times of kitty-sitting. Coupled with interaction and affection, play time and lots of love, my friends and family have always had mostly very healthy and happy kitties. Much of the information I needed to learn on a couple occasions came from Dr. Karen Becker, an associate of Dr. Mercola’s. Please be sure to research her if you have questions about your little one that you need answered, she is very prolific and has a large knowledge base from which to help you learn the best ways to raise and care for the cat or dog.

A Special Note for Pug-Nose Dog Owners:

For some reason, the friends I do have with dogs, almost always have some breed of pug-nosed dog. They’re awfully cute, so since there seem to be so many of them (at least in my life, lol) I wanted to pass along this special note regarding having them on leashes:

As you know, these breeds tend to “snort” a lot. These dogs were specially bred, so they are prone to having sinus issues and eye issues due to the structure of their heads.

Because of this, is it a must to have these breeds on a *body harness leash* when walking them, NOT a neck-collar-style leash. The stress the latter leashes can put on their heads can be severe enough to cause them harm, including eye pressures that can cause loss of the eye.

So I just wanted to pass that along to make sure it was out there for my audience who may have these breeds of dogs. Really, ALL dogs and cats should be on body harnesses over neck leashes. There are plenty of these harnesses of various sizes available for both dogs and cats at your local pet store, or can be special ordered.

A LAST NOTE:

Please take the responsibility of having a pet very seriously. Are you prepared to have a portion of your life devoted to the care of another being?

Please closely consider this before bringing one into your life. I have seen far too many people have the wrong intentions when bringing an animal into their life. Not fully appreciating the care involved in tending to another living being. The time, devotion and commitment.

In my opinion, animals have birthrights that we humans do not on this planet. This is their domain. If we are removing them from their natural element, I feel we have an absolute responsibility to give them the best we have to offer.